NEW DELHI: India’s home minister told the Hindu-nationalist opposition to stop playing politics before elections after it criticized a decision to move a top cricket tournament abroad due to security concerns.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called a decision by the Indian cricket board (BCCI) to move the flagship Twenty20 Indian Premier League (IPL) out of India a “national shame,” and said the government should have done more to provide security.
The controversy over the fate of India’s most popular sport comes only weeks before a general election in which the Congress-led government and the BJP are battling for power.
“It appears that IPL is more than a game. It is a shrewd combination of sport and business. There is no reason to add politics to this combination,” P. Chidambaram told a news conference in New Delhi yesterday.
The IPL controversy comes after militants attacked a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan this month.
The IPL tournament, a huge cash cow seen by many as a symbol of the country’s growing prowess on and off the pitch, may be hosted by either South Africa or England. Organizers say it will return to cricket-crazy India next year.
The BCCI had already revised the match dates three times because of clashes with the country’s general election.
The BJP said the failure to provide adequate security sent a signal to the world that India was little safer than its insurgency-hit neighbor, Pakistan. The BJP Chief Minister of Gujarat state, Narendra Modi, called it a “national shame,” according to the Press Trust of India (PTI), adding “it is a shame that a powerful nation like India can’t secure the IPL.”
Security will likely play heavy on voters’ minds as the country goes to the polls between April 16 and May 13, and the government has already warned of the threat of militant attacks to the world’s largest democratic exercise.
Chidambaram repeated Congress’ line that public safety was paramount and said state governments had been slow to respond to the central government’s attempts to reach a solution.
He also criticized the BCCI for what he said was needless sniping at the central government, adding it was up to states to decide whether it was safe to play the tournament that attracts some of the biggest names in cricket.
Both the Congress-led coalition and the BJP have touted their security credentials to a jittery nation after the Mumbai militant attacks that killed 166 people in November.
“We used to hear about security threats to sporting events in Pakistan, but now this is happening in India. This will surely give wrong signals,” said BJP’s general secretary Arun Jaitley, according to the Press Trust of India.
